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You'll find Italian products in space, too
Rome - (Ign) - It is probably the epitome of Italian technology: an entire family of systems for space transport, thanks to which the International Space Station may be supplied with materials and reached by astronauts. These are modules designed and built by Alenia Spazio, the company of the Finmeccanica group which, through the merger with the space division of the French company Alcatel in the summer, became Alcatel Alenia Space (www.aleniapsazio.it).
The four machines developed by the Italian technicians are the MPLM, the Columbus, the Nodes system, the complex ATV programme and the Cupola system. The first, the MPLM has so far been produced in three distinct versions, named after three great Italian artists, Leonardo, Raffaello and Donatello. It is a pressurised system making it possible to "load" and "download" personnel, components and materials to or from the International Space Station. This is the characteristic which makes it almost unique in the international panorama: that of being a flexible two-way system, with a remarkable load capacity (it can transport over 3 tonnes of material) and an easily usable size. It is in fact just over 6 m long and has a diameter of 4 m and can thus easily be housed on board normal rockets.
Columbus is instead a sort of evolution of the MPLM. This is a real space laboratory designed for the study and research on fluid physics and on the biological life of micro-organisms in conditions of micro gravity. Basically, this is much more than a simple means of space connection, but rather a complex system of machinery and measurement systems which will be connected permanently to the international Space Station by the end of 2006 for no less than 10 years of operational activity. Columbus also has a cylindrical structure (6½ metres long and 4 m in diameter) and will be connected to the Station by means of a type 2 Node. This is the third member of the family of space modules designed by Alenia. And it is perhaps the most refined and technologically advanced machine produced in this field, since it allows, depending on the types of apparatus, the connection between different elements of the Space Station, making it possible to change their overall configuration while maintaining pressurised conditions.
The ATV programme, developed by the European Space Agency, and with the fundamental participation of Alenia, foresees the production of a automated logistics system for refuelling the Space Station. Launched by an Ariane 5 rocket, the ATV system will automatically reach the Station, with a transport capacity of over 7 tonnes of materials. On re-entry into the atmosphere, the module will self-destruct, since its recovery would be excessively costly. This is something, however, that will certainly not happen to the fifth module of the Alenia family, the Cupola. This is a small pressurised structure with a diameter of only 2 m and 1½ metres long. It will be docked by 2009 using a type 3 Node system and will make it possible to perform observations and measurements of all kinds, also regarding the International Space Station itself. Its particular configuration has made it necessary to develop particularly sophisticated systems for protection from meteorites, making Cupola a sort of special research laboratory which can provide information and experience of increasing scientific importance.
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